Massively popular video game \u201cFortnite\u201d, TV news graphics and acclaimed animated series and films have something in common: use of the powerful Unreal Engine that is quickly becoming the go-to tool for 3D projects beyond the video games industry.<\/p>\n
Created for the 1998 game \u201cUnreal\u201d by Tim Sweeney \u2014 who is now the head of \u201cFortnite\u201d developer Epic Games \u2014 the engine was soon made available for other companies.<\/p>\n
It was a rare move in an industry where most studios develop their own engines, an expansive term for the software controlling the main characteristics of a game world such as sound, graphics and physics simulation.<\/p>\n
In recent years, the ease of use and power of the latest version of Unreal Engine has seen it integrated into hit games titles such as China\u2019s \u201cBlack Myth: Wukong\u201d or France\u2019s \u201cClair Obscur: Expedition 33\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cTomb Raider\u201d star Lara Croft will be crafted in Unreal Engine in her upcoming fresh adventures too, said Scot Amos, director of the Crystal Dynamics studio.<\/p>\n
Using Unreal \u201cgives us access to a broad swath\u201d of developers, he said, calling it \u201can ubiquitous tool that so many people will use and get\u201d.<\/p>\n
The off-the-shelf solution saves on time and costs as \u201cwe don\u2019t have to keep teaching people how to use a proprietary tech\u201d developed in-house, Amos added.<\/p>\n
More than one quarter (28 percent) of games released for PCs in 2024 were built using Unreal Engine, according to specialist data firm Sensor Tower.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s become truly indispensable in the industry,\u201d said Brice Roy, director of France\u2019s Institute for Digital Creation and Animation (ICAN), a training school with sites in several cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe engine is preconfigured, which is what makes it so attractive: as soon as you create a rough build, it looks really beautiful, it works right away\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Planned to diversify\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Epic Games\u2019 ambition for Unreal Engine is not limited to underpinning large swaths of the game industry.<\/p>\n
A first technical demonstration of its real-time modelling power for high-end carmaker McLaren drew attention from other sectors too.<\/p>\n
Unreal has since been applied to modelling architectural projects, onboard navigation for cars and reconstructions in television news reports.<\/p>\n
Film and TV have not hesitated either, with Epic Games\u2019 tech deployed in Star Wars series \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d and Oscar-winning short film \u201cWar is Over\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe planned to diversify this way,\u201d said Sebastien Miglio, Epic\u2019s vice-president for Unreal Engine product development.<\/p>\n
The developer has been gradually adding \u201cthe missing functionality to integrate (Unreal Engine) into production pipelines\u201d across different industries.<\/p>\n
Around 600 people work full-time at Epic on the game engine, which boasts a monthly user count of more than one million.<\/p>\n
That makes Unreal Engine a \u201csignificant\u201d part of Epic\u2019s business, Miglio said.<\/p>\n
Some of the software\u2019s success can be traced to its unique business model, under which Epic offers game developers the software for free and takes a five-percent cut only if their work tops $1.0 million in revenue.<\/p>\n
In other sectors, access costs around $1,800 per user for companies making more than a million in annual revenue.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Standardisation\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Generous access policies have made Unreal Engine a boon to online content creators.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see it kind of as a free tool\u201d that \u201cmeets the need to illustrate our videos,\u201d said Sylvain Szewczyk, who uses Unreal to create interview backgrounds and illustrations for tech-focused stories broadcast to his 540,000 YouTube subscribers.<\/p>\n
But the tool\u2019s dominance as the first choice for creators could lead to excessive \u201cstandardisation\u201d of 3D content, ICAN\u2019s Roy warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cGames developed with Unreal often have a graphical footprint that\u2019s easy to spot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Epic still has big plans for Unreal Engine, aiming to adapt it for mobile games and add to its capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we can make multiplayer games on maps of around eight square kilometres (three square miles) with 100 players,\u201d Epic\u2019s Miglio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re looking at today is how to put up to 100,000 players on maps of 100, 200 or 300 square kilometres.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tool has not escaped the 2020s AI fever, with the developer also planning to integrate a generative tool for 3D objects or for automatically carrying out certain tasks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Massively popular video game \u201cFortnite\u201d, TV news graphics and acclaimed animated series and films have something in common:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,399,46,100524,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-316277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-international","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-mna","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}